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Redman: Troubled Mind
Part One --------------------------------------- The sun was slowly rising over the horizon. Birds flew over the large, barren quarries and forests as they tweeted and chirped. Small rodents scuttled around, presumably out of their homes. Everything was peaceful. BOOM! Multiple explosions suddenly erupted from behind a large dune of rock and sand. Propelled through the air by the explosion, Gigan came crashing down into the dune. Forcefully pulling his hooked hands out of the grand, he stood up and looked up towards the top of the dune, trying to look through his cracked red visor. He slightly backed away, expecting his opponent to leap over the top of the dune and finish him off. However, his opponent was nowhere to be seen. He thought that was strange as he was the one who was losing the fight. He gave a sigh of relief, slightly hunched over from exhaustion. Out of nowhere, two red arms suddenly wrapped around his throat! They dragged him backwards as he struggled to escape their grip. He rammed his elbow backwards and knocked his attacker backwards, allowing him to turn around and face him. There in front of him was Redman, a superhero destined to protect Japan. Gigan mirrored Redman's actions and got into a fighting stance. Without warning, Redman began charging towards him. Gigan fired a burning laser from his cracked visor, expelling excess energy throw the small cracks. However, Redman jumped over them and used his Red Thunder attack, firing a white beam of energy into Gigan's face. Before Gigan could turn around, Redman kicked him in the back, beating him down to the ground. Before Redman could grab him, Gigan leaped away and darted around to face Redman once again. This time, he targeted Redman's arm and fired his hookshot. Redman held his right arm up to block it, unable to stop it from wrapping around his arm. Gigan laughed and began spinning the buzzsaw in his chest. Trying to break free of Gigan's grip, Redman resisted and tried to pull away. However, the hookshot was too strong and he edged closer and closer to Gigan's weaponized chest. With seconds left, Redman quickly devised a strategy and threw his right arm downwards, getting the ropes of the hookshot caught in the rotating buzzsaw, causing it to stop violently rotating. Gigan roared in pain as the hookshot was ripped off his arm. With the rope still wrapped around his arm, he jumped backwards and ripped the buzzsaw out of Gigan's chest. Doubling over in pain, Gigan vomited a disgusting blue and black liquid and clutched his chest. Redman decided to finish Gigan off, removing the ropes from the buzzsaw and throwing it like a frisbee, slicing through Gigan's neck and decapitating him. Like a boomerang, the buzzsaw came flying back and tore through Gigan's back, lodging itself horizontally in his torso. No longer connected to the bottom of the body, the top half of Gigan slowly slid off the top of the buzzsaw and fell to the ground. Redman stared triumphantly at the creature's corpse. And then... Mark woke up. He rose up in his bed, rubbing his eyes and looking around the dark room. The dark blue light of the early morning was visible behind the curtains. The cold air brushed against his exposed chest and birds could be heard flying outside. He looked at the alarm clock, which read 04:03 AM. He felt the gentle hand of his girlfriend, Susan, touch his chest. "Come back to bed" she said, only just opening her eyes. "You need sleep" she said. He looked down at her, smiled and laid down on his side to face her. She got close to him and faced the other way, allowing him to put his arm under her right arm and cuddle with her. With their bodies pressed together, they slowly began to get warmer. He kissed her neck and closed his eyes. . . . Later that morning, Susan woke up and looked at the alarm clock, which now read 07:21 AM. She attempted to sit up but found her boyfriend was still holding tight onto her. She looked over her shoulder to look at him and sighed, trying to get up again. She tugged his arm. "Baby" she said. "You've got wake up." "Ugh, why can't I stay asleep" he mumbled, keeping his eyes closed. She tugged his arm again. "It's 7:20", she said. "You've got to go to work." Mark groaned and turned over onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. "Sometimes I just want to sleep forever." "Well unless you want to be Sleeping Beauty, you can't" she said, smiling at him. She caressed his cheek with her hand and then got out of bed, grabbing her white dressing gown and putting it on. "I already am Sleeping Beauty" he joked, looking up at her. She left the room and closed the door behind her, heading into the kitchen. Stretching his arms, he sat up and gave a heavy yawn. He opened the cupboard and sifted through all of his clothes until finding a belt, grey denim jeans and a white, buttoned shirt. Grabbing some underwear and socks from the drawer, he began putting his clothes on. He looked over towards his desk, observing upon a small crimson red journal with a pen beside it. Tightening his belt, he walked over to it and opened it up. In this journal were stories, documenting his dreams he regularly had. He smiled at the crude illustrations of Redman, a fictional superhero character that he had invented in his dreams. Though he wrote these just for fun, he did plan to one day publish them in the hopes of raising more money and leaving his mundane job. He opened the window and looked down at the estate below him. If he could publish his book and earn more money, maybe he could afford a house of his very own. Until then, an apartment had to do. It wasn't too shabby though. He had a bedroom, obviously, as well as a living room combined with a kitchen and a room home to the bath, shower, toilet and sink. "You're awake" Susan smiled, as Mark walked over to her. He rubbed his eyes again and smiled. "Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful?" he asked. "Yes, but only one of those people are important" she replied, buttering a slice of toast. "And who would that be?" he grinned, grabbing his own plain slice of toast. "My late aunt" she said. Looking at his face and seeing it dropped, she laughed. "Obviously I meant you, dumbo!" "Jeez" he said. "Thought I'd have to divorce you for a second then", he joked. "We're not married" she said. "Not yet." He finished his toast, took some hayfever tablets and grabbed his coat. He walked back over to her, firmly held her tight and gave her a quick kiss. "See you later" he said, kissing her again and turning to leave their apartment. He opened the door and looked back at her. "Love you!" she shouted, making sure he heard her before he left. "Love you too" he replied, closing the door behind him and getting into the closest elevator. Stepping in, he pressed the button for the ground floor and propped himself up against the wall. Before the doors could close, another guy quickly stepped in. "Hey Matt" said Mark, greeting him with a brief waving gesture. "Hey" he replied. "Off to work?" he asked. "Yeah. How 'bout you?" Mark asked back. "I'm going to see Dave down at the market. He got there early to set up his little stall. I keep telling him, nobody is going to steal his spot but he insists that they will." "Hah, yeah, Dave is a pretty strange guy" Mark said, chuckling to himself. Matt looked at him, slightly frowning. Realizing this, Mark quickly said "not in that way! I wasn't referring to... that" he cautiously said. "I know what you meant" said Matt, laughing. "Are you and him...?" "Yeah, it's still happening. Then after that, hopefully we can move out of this place. It's so cold." "I know, right!" answered Mark, stepping out of the elevator as the doors opened. "I want to complain about it, but they keep saying that they're working on it." Following him out, Matt said "yeah, because it takes four months to fix some heating on the top floor. They clearly just don't care. I ought to tell them that, really." The two of them were now outside. "Well, I'll see you later dude. Got to go now. You have a good day though!" "Yeah, you too" said Mark, heading down the street. After a short walk, Mark arrived at John and Earl's Outlet Store. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. To be honest, he didn't really want to go to work again. It was the same boring routine every day. He entered the store and thus began another boring day at work. Later in the evening, Mark returned home and found Susan on her laptop, talking to her friends on Facebook. "I'm back" he said, yawning and slouching down on the sofa. "How was your day?" she asked, briefly looking up from the laptop. "The usual crap" he said. He noticed a finished bowl of soup on the table. "Any tea left?" he asked. "Yeah, I've left some in the microwave for you, sweetie" she said. "Thanks." He got up and microwaved the soup. He could hear it bubbling a bit. He got a spoon and waited for the timer to reach zero. Beep! Beep! He opened the microwave door and touched the bowl, accidentally burning himself! Recoiling back in pain, he grabbed some oven mitts and picked up the soup. Blowing onto it to cool it down, he put the bowl on a tray and carried it over to the table. He tried eating some, but it was too hot for him. He held his face over the steam as it rose to the ceiling. It was the only real warmth he was going to get. "How's your day been then?" he asked, lying back in the comfy grasp of the sofa. "Oh!" she shouted. "So you know Jan and Craig? Right, they announced their having a third baby." "Third? It wasn't that long ago that they had twins" replied Mark. "I'd like to have a little boy someday" said Susan, making a poor attempt to be subtle. "It's best to wait until we have a better place to live first" he said, quickly brushing that topic aside. "Did Steph say anything else about those lawn chair sets she was selling?" asked Susan, shutting her laptop. "Sorry, babe, I forgot..." "Baby..." she frowned. "I wanted you to ask about them!" "What would we use them for?" he asked. "We don't even have a lawn!" "No, but we might do someday" she explained. She stretched her arms and yawned. The next morning, Mark was sat at the desk in his bedroom writing another short story in his journal. This story featured Redman fighting not one, but two monsters at once. He had drawn an illustration of Redman grabbing a purple dragonfly-esque monster named Megaguirus by the neck and holding a knife up to the neck of a grey, squid monster called Viras. He was busy writing the battle sequence. Redman stood in the middle of the street, making sure the citizens of Tokyo were out of harms way. In front of him was a squid creature smashing up cars and a giant dragonfly toppling over buildings. Redman brandished a small rectangular object and threw it, firing multiple tiny darts into the squid's body. It turned towards him and let out a high pitch roar, catching the attention of Megaguirus and alerting her to Redman's presence. Redman got into a fighting stance. "Reddo Fight!" he shouted. Mark closed the book, satisfied with what he had written. He was planning to finish it later after he came home from work. Susan had also agreed to actually watch 'some cheesy old Japanese film' (as she called them) with him later, though that was probably just because she had nothing else to do. He grabbed his jacket and put it on, getting up so that he could leave. "You going now?" asked Susan, emerging from behind an opened cupboard door. She was preparing to go jogging with one of her friends and was getting changed into the appropriate clothing. "Yeah, I'll see you later" he said. The two of them embraced in a hug and they kissed. Mark let go and left. Susan sat on the bed and put a pink headband around her head. Around ten minutes later, Mark was stood outside of the corner shop yet again. Reluctantly pushing through the bead curtain in the door, the little bell rang and he went to the back room. He checked his phone to see what time it was, and then manually powered it down. He put it on the table so that he could hang his coat on a hanger and adjust his shirt so that it wasn't so baggy. Forgetting to put his phone in his pocket, he walked to the cash register and rested on the counter. looking around at all of the things on sale in the store. From magazines and toys to books and DVDs, this little corner shop had a good range of things to buy. The carpet was a strange shade of purple and the walls had an inviting cream colour to them. John came out from the back room. "Mornin' Mark", he said, putting on his jacket and walking towards the door. "I'm just off out to the hospital. I'll back in, what, thirty or forty odd minutes." "How's Earl doing?" Mark asked politely. "Dad's doin' alright" he said. "His back's gettin' a lot better now, they say. Nothing real bad, see." "Ah" said Mark. "Well, that's good. Hope he gets well soon." "He appreciates it" said John, leaving the store. Mark sat down and grabbed a magazine from under the counter. He flipped through the pages and looked through it as he waited for any customers to come through the door. "Not reading anything naughty, are you, Mark?" teased Steph as she put more cereal boxes on the shelves. "You know full well I'm not" Mark said, looking at her over the top of the magazine. He perked up as a young female customer came through the door. "Hi!" he said. "Welcome to John and Earl's Outlet Store! How may I help?" . . . Later that night, Mark and Susan were together on the sofa. He was watching an old monster movie and she was lying down, cuddling into him. It was a quiet evening and both of them were very tired. She looked at the TV screen and saw what appeared to be a giant multi-coloured robot helping Godzilla fight a giant upright beetle thing. "I hope you know this is a very silly film" she said, looking up at him. He looked down into her eyes and then back at the TV. "Nothing wrong with being childish sometimes." "Why can't we ever watch something serious?" she asked. "Probably because your idea of a serious movie is something like Mamma Mia" he answered. "But this-" "-Oh, here comes my favourite bit" he interrupted. "You've got to watch this bit. It's classic." On the screen, the robot was behind the beetle creature and was holding it still. Godzilla suddenly started sliding on his tail and kicked the beetle directly in the chest. Susan sighed at how cheap it was. "I'm really tired" she said. "Like, really tired." She sat up but still leaned against him. Suddenly, the movie stopped and the image on the screen began acting up. "God damn it" moaned Mark, ejecting the disc from the player. He looked at the homemade disc and saw there were some scratches on the back. He put it back in a black DVD case and put it back on the shelf next to a few other DVDs with labels on the front of them. They were all Godzilla films that he had digitally copied to a disc. These films weren't cheap, and a lot of them were hard to track down on DVD. Copying them online was the easiest way Mark could watch these films. He sat back down next to Susan and leaned against her. "I'm tired too" he admitted. "Everything here is a mess. Even my DVDs don't fucking work." He sighed heavily, looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. He reached into his pocket for his phone and realize he didn't have it. "Oh, great... I left my phone at work. Don't you just feel like the world is out to go you sometimes?" he asked. "Don't worry" she said, turning around to face him. "We'll have moved out soon. We'll find somewhere better." She kissed him on the cheek. "We can't guarantee that, though" he said. "What if it's just this, forever? This apartment, with no proper heating, and a boring corner shop job." "But you're making money. It's not that bad." "I'm only just able to support us, Susan. Last month we almost didn't have enough to afford the rent... Everything used to be so much better when we were children. We didn't have to worry about any of this stuff." "Is that why you watch these movies?" she asked. "I grew up with these movies. Spent most of my time watching these types of films.Godzilla, Gamera... I miss the days when I could just watch one of these and enjoy myself... Now I just watch them to try and catch that feeling again." "You can still enjoy yourself, honey" she said, trying to reassure him everything was fine. "You have me." "Yeah, I know..." he said. "It's just that I'm so stressed with work. You go in, wait for someone to walk in and then serve them. It's so boring. I want something more. Something more than an uneventful job at some corner shop." "You've got your stories you write. You know, the ones you dream about? You could try publishing those." "I'd have to change all of the characters to avoid any copyright infringement." "Right..." she said. "Sorry" he said. "Like I said, I'm tired. I'm just tired..." She hugged him and stroked his arm. "It'll get better" she said. "It has to." "We can only hope", he said, putting his arm around her. She closed her eyes and got as close as she could to him. He looked at her face, illuminated by the light of their lamp, and closed his eyes as well. --------------------------------------- Part Two --------------------------------------- It was now Wednesday morning and Mark was on his way to work. Despite having been really tired, he had barely gotten any sleep after last night. He couldn't stop thinking about what lied ahead for them and it was clearly taking its toll on him. Signs of bags had began forming underneath his dreary eyes and he couldn't stop yawning. Susan had managed to get a lot of sleep, remaining as optimistic as she usually would. Sometimes Mark couldn't tell if she was just a generally positive woman or if she was simply hiding her problems away.